4 Years Old
“…Gradatim sanitates!” Rainer finished intoning while making the necessary gestures with both hands. As he felt the familiar warm rush of energy fill him, Rainer rushed forward and continued striking the tree in front of him. Jab, jab, elbow, shin kick, cross, elbow. Rainer kept hitting the tree, the pain of the strikes almost like a familiar friend by this point. Compared to the Rainer of 2 years ago, his hand-to-hand combat was on a completely different level. He flowed through the movements he had been taught, smoothly moving from strike to strike while keeping his balance and form. However, the biggest difference was in the power of his strikes. In the past, he had to be careful not to hurt himself when practicing unarmed, but now with his Double-Cast healing spell healing any of the minor damage almost immediately, he could let loose. Sixty seconds later, the spell stopped, and Rainer took a break.
“I think that’s enough for now. I’ve been told that you’re heading to the city with your family soon, so you can go bath and get ready now” Pint said. Pint was one of our houses warriors who my grandfather had nurtured. He was also the only one who had reached journeyman in the Unarmed skill, and over the last two years of training he had stopped by a couple of times to help train me for a few days.
Truthfully, I had been amazed by the variety and strength of the men in our Houses employ. When I had asked my grandfather, he had told me that since he knew that he himself had no talent for combat and magic, he had always invested heavily in our house’s retainers, guards and mages. Most of them also worked for the Argold Trading Firm, and over the years he had managed to raise some very impressive retainers and guards. Although, according to him, only those that were our Houses retainers and had sworn fealty to us were allowed to stop by to train me. There were also lots of men that the Argold Trading Firm had invested in as guards who I wasn’t allowed to meet as they couldn’t be trusted as much. However, my grandfather made an effort to pull the most talented to work directly for our House, so I wasn’t losing much in terms of training.
“Thank you, instructor Pint” I said to him respectfully.
“My pleasure, young lord. Now off you go.” I nodded as I started heading back to the manor from the clearing in the woods that had become so familiar lately. Today my family was heading to Bloyde City, the main city of the Bloyde House, one of the five Ducal families in our kingdom. Their heir would have his 13th birthday soon, which in earth years meant he was almost 16 years old.
13 counted as the age of maturity for humans here, although since humans here seemed to grow and mature faster than on earth, 13-year-olds looked more like 18- or 19-year-olds that I was used to. I had turned 4 years old last week, and although in earth years I was around five years old, I looked more like I was nine, although I was growing fast even compared to other children in this world.
The two years that had passed since I had revealed all of my Abilities to my father and grandfather had been a mix for me. On the one hand, the amount of training I had received, the knowledge and skills I had gained, was incredible. On the other hand, I had been forbidden from leaving the estate, my family worried about potential assassins and plots by our enemies - my grandfather’s meteoric economic rise had made him many enemies, and we couldn’t forget those that had targeted my father’s House before he married into the Argold Family. This had caused many of my social skills to halt in their advancement, not receiving the necessary stimulation to grow. This was why I was so excited to head into the city. Although the celebrations would only last a couple of days, I would be staying for a full month with my grandfather in our estate in the city, to learn what I could and train my less-used skills.
After reaching the estate I quickly took a bath, and had lunch delivered to my room. The whole estate was almost out of control, as tempers ran high as the last-minute preparations were done. As befitting our station as Counts, our family would be arriving with a large entourage to the city, dozens of maids, guards, butlers, cooks and other servants. Our estate in the city was normally well staffed since my grandfather often had business in the city and stayed there, but since the whole family was coming for a large visit, we would need to travel with a lot of staff.
We would first travel to Argold city, which was our city and was about half a day’s ride by carriage from here, which is why we were leaving only at noon. Then, we would have to travel for three days to reach Bloyde City, where the celebration would be happening. Giddy with excitement at finally leaving the estate, Rainer opened his status to view everything that had changed in the last two years of training.
Name: Rainer Argold
Race: Human
Level: 1(Locked)
Health: 87/102
Stamina: 71/102
Mana: 73/153
H.Regeneration: 2.55 /hour
S.Regeneration: 122.4/hour
M.Regeneration: 109.8/hour
Attributes:
Constitution: 6
Endurance: 6
Intelligence: 11
Strength: 8
Agility: 6
Dexterity: 9
Wisdom: 14
Charisma: 9
Luck: 6
Abilities:
Max Skill Affinity(Tier 5): Always have 100% skill affinity for all skills
Attribute Affinity(Tier 4): Increased affinity to attributes. Increased ability to gain attributes from training. Can directly gain resource pool and regeneration from training.
Charismatic(Tier 2): +3 Charisma, +3 Charisma(Locked), +10% skill experience to Social Skills
Skilled Tamer(Tier 2): +10% skill experience to Taming skill, minimum 75% Affinity to Taming Skill
Increased Strength(Tier 1): +2 Strength, + 2 Strength (Locked)
Increased dexterity(Tier 1): +2 Dexterity, +2 Dexterity (Locked)
Skills (skill level)
Combat:
Axes(45), swords(46), shield(47), hammer(25), Unarmed(39), Unarmored(48), Dual Wield(35), Longbow(25), Light Armor(25), Mace(25), Spear(25), stealth(34), daggers(45), throw weapon(33), tracking(12), traps(15), detect traps(12)
Magic:
Light Magic(23), Life Magic(27), Air Magic(46), Water Magic(15), Earth Magic(47), Fire Magic(17), Dark Magic(12), Death Magic(9), Taming(15), Double Cast(33), Dual Cast(43), Quick Cast(51)
Crafting:
Herbology(12), Alchemy(7), Smithing(4), enchanting(3), Trade(14), barter(14), negotiate(12), reading(32, writing(25)
Miscellaneous:
Meditation(56), Inspect(31), Resist Inspect(7), Acting(47), Gambling(26), Riding(14), Animal Care(17)
Achievements:
Ambidextrous - I, minor backlash resistance, mana attuned – II, Skilled Prodigy, To The Brink
System Points: 7
Revive: 2
The first thing that jumped to eye was my skills. After some tweaking, I had managed to make it so that it only showed the skills level. Seeing affinity was useless since I had 100% in all of them, and I didn’t need to always see how close to the next level I was. I could of course still view it if I wanted to on a specific skill.
I had also managed to separate the skills into four categories, although the names were kind of misleading. After all, Tracking wasn’t really a combat skill, and yet I had placed it in that category. The reason for this was Professions.
Over the years my grandfather had let me read some of the books in his study. Some of them he had gathered in his travels, or traded for with other noble houses, and some he had written himself for his descendants, a collection of his knowledge in certain topics. One of them had been about Professions. Professions were kind of like the classes I was so used to in the games and books I used to read. Warrior, Mage, Blacksmith, Alchemist… there were many Proffesions. Basically, every single skill was associated with a Proffesion, although there was a lot of overlap. For example, swords, axes, shields, spears… most close combat skills were of the Warrior profession, and similarly all 8 magic skills gave the Mage profession.
In any case, to get a profession, there were only two requirements. If you met these requirements, you could get the profession directly from the system, and there was technically no limit to how many professions you could have. The first requirement was to be a Journeyman, which meant level 45, in the skill. The second was a level requirement. Some Professions required you to be level 10, and some required level 20.
This was what I had divided my skills by. Combat and Magic were skills that required level 20 to get their corresponding profession, and Crafting and Miscellaneous required level 10.
The other thing that I was proud of was my Achievements, mainly Mana Attuned and To The Brink. Ambidextrous was something I had gotten after training weapon skills as if I was left-handed for a month, and gave me a point in Dexterity. The numerical “1” after just meant that it was an achievement that could be upgraded. For ambidextrous, I couldn’t become any more ambidextrous, so apparently the only way to raise it was to keep doing things with both hands. It was apparently one of the most common achievements, and most noble houses that took themselves seriously made sure their children trained to get it, although it usually took much more time than it had for me. My father told me he had it at level 3 already, although nothing changed except getting another point in Dexterity for each level of the Achievement.
Minor Backlash Resistance was something I had gotten when trying to unlock the Quick Cast skill after suffering 100 backlashes. It gave me +1 Intelligence, +1 wisdom, and -10% to the negative effects of magical backlashes. I had also eventually unlocked the Quick Cast skill after over two months of trying for hours every night. The minor backlash resistance wasn’t a numerical type of achievement, or else I was sure I’d have already reached the second one. While the pain had been harrowing, it had been worth it. I had gotten much better at ignoring the pain of the backlashes, and could function almost normally through them. I also had gotten much better at casting in adverse situations, something I had kept practicing during close combat practice.
The real jewel though, had been the Quick Cast skill itself. It had been my first Tier 4 skill, and for every level in it, it reduced the time necessary to cast a spell by 0.5%. That seemed small at the beginning for such a high tiered skill, but its effect in combat was incredible. It, combined with all my practice of casting in adverse situations, allowed me to cast while fighting, something that didn’t cease to amaze my various instructors. I could defend with my shield on one hand, parrying and dodging blows, while casting spells with the other. Buffing myself, de-buffing my enemy, summoning creatures to fight with me… then when I was ready, I could draw my axe and fight, now at a large advantage. None of that helped me win against my instructors of course, who were all much higher leveled than me, and simply had too much of an attribute advantage. The other effect of Quick Cast was that it allowed it’s user to gain familiarity and master spells that were cast often, giving me an even larger boost to how fast I could cast them. The time it took to master a spell increased significantly as the spells level increased, so I was currently focusing my efforts on novice spells, but still the effects were incredible.
I currently had 5 spells I could almost instantly cast, just a small gesture of my hand without even any words necessary. I had arranged for the system to show a list of these spells that I had “mastered”. Seeing them always brought a smile to my lips and renewed my determination, and I summoned them up now.
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Mastered spells by Quick Cast(Tier 4)
Spell name
Magic type
Spell level
Effect
Weak Haste
Air
1
+10% movement and attack speed, 35 mana, no cooldown, duration: 5 minutes, range: 5 meters
Light Lance
Light
8
Shoots a lance of light, dealing 30-50 light damage and capable of blinding. 50 mana, 2 minute cooldown, range: 15 meters
Summon Vineling
Earth
4
Summons a level 6 Vineling to fight for you. 75 mana, Duration 5 minutes, cooldown: 10 minutes
Light ball
Light
1
Summons weak light ball. 5 mana, duration: 5 minutes, no cooldown, range: 10 meters
Night vision
Dark
1
Improves low light vision. 20 mana, duration: 5 minutes, cooldown: None, Range: Touch
Light Ball was the first spell I mastered, and was the reason I had unlocked Quick Cast. Night Vision was more of a utility spell, and although I could imagine situations in which instant casting it would be useful, I had trained it mainly because it had no cooldown and a low cost, which made mastering it much easier. Summon Vineling, Haste, and Light Lance were a different matter though. I had practiced a lot to finally master them, and they were very useful. A well-timed light lance to someone’s eyes served as a wonderful distraction and also dealt a respectable amount of damage. Boosting my speed was always welcome, and having something I could summon almost instantly to protect me was very reassuring. The vine was actually almost stronger than me, seeing as how I was still stuck in level 1.
Humans in this world unlocked their experience and the ability to level only sometime between the age of four and five. While finally getting the ability to start leveling would be very nice, it would also introduce a whole host of problems. After all, I would need to spend a couple of months in each level to maximize my gains from Attribute Affinity, but reaching new ranks in levels would give me experience, which might cause me to gain levels faster than I wished, especially at the beginning. This was also why I had put such a focus in my training on reaching level 25 or 45 in as many skills as possible. This way, I would be able to train those skills a lot without getting experience after I Unlocked.
I dismissed the table of spells I had mastered, and my eye was drawn to my three other Achievements. Skilled Prodigy was simple. I had gotten it when Axes reached Journeyman, for having a skill reach journeyman before Unlocking. There was likely a similar Achievement for reaching adept, by I had long given up on it. Likely, only someone with a very high affinity and a high tiered Ability that boosted learning speed had a chance at getting something like that, and even then, it would be very hard. The Achievement had given me a free attribute point, which I put in wisdom for the mana regeneration, and one SP, which I naturally couldn’t do anything with
Mana Attuned had actually been a mistake. Annoyed at my repeated failures to learn quick cast, with the help of my grandfather I had decided to do a prolonged session of meditation and casting light ball, like in the cultivation manuals I had read. After about 30 hours of just meditation and keeping my mana between 1 and 6, casting Light ball whenever it reached 6, I had collapsed unconscious, and had woken up with the achievement, new skill, and massive leaps in meditation and light magic. The Achievement had given me +2 intelligence and wisdom, one SP, and -10% to the negative effects of having low mana. I had gotten the second iteration of it from my normal training; I spent most of the day with low mana, the resulting headache almost a friend by now. It was great training, both to learn to ignore the effects of low mana, and to cast in harsh situations. I generally only allowed my mana to rise higher when I practiced higher cost spells, or when I slept. Even when I wasn’t in a situation that allowed me to cast spells, I could always just inspect something to lose 5 mana, and that had no cooldown. The second iteration of the achievement had given me another two intelligence and wisdom, and another 2 SP, but without increase the resistance to negative effects of low mana.
After getting that achievement, my grandfather and I had made a plan to hopefully get something like “To The Brink”, and it had worked. My grandfather had got large stocks of two kinds of poisonous herbs. One of them was a common poisonous herb that dealt around 5 points of damage when eaten, and the other was an uncommon herb that drained a similar amount of stamina. Alternating between eating these herbs and casting light ball, I had kept myself at around 10 of each resource pool for hours. It had been absolutely horrible, and despite the incredible rewards form the achievement, a part of me was very glad it wasn’t a numerical Achievement, and that I didn’t need to go through it again. Although the headache and sluggish thoughts of low mana was bad, and the fatigue and bone deep weariness of low Stamina was also not enjoyable, the effects of having low Health were absolutely horrible. Not only did it make me feel extremely sick, like I was going to puke, and had been stuck on a sick bed for months, but it also gave such an extreme profound sense of vulnerability. It made it feel like you were just moments away from death, which you were but it amplified the natural feeling by a lot, and it preyed on your mind. Made it feel like you were being watched, like everyone around you knew how fragile you were, and all of them were thinking of killing you. It took your natural paranoia and dialed it up by a hundred. It was absolutely horrible, and I shivered whenever I thought of that experience.
The Achievement had given me 2 SP, 2 free attribute points, and +20% to the regeneration of all three resource pools.
***
Rainer sat in the carriage with his grandfather and Liam on the way to Argold city. They were riding in a huge procession, his father and mother were riding a large carriage in the front, and he and his grandfather were following behind them. Outside the carriage, were many maids and guards riding other, more simple carriages, and horses. Liam was one of our houses retainers which had been reassigned to be a permanent mentor and protector to me, together with Jessica. I had become so used to training that resting during the carriage ride wasn’t really an option. Instead, I was practicing controlling my Summons.
Creatures that were summoned through magic spells were quite hard to control, and there was no system skill to help with it, which meant you had to manually train yourself to do it. Although there wasn’t a Skill that helped control summons, my two main magical instructors had told me I was very talented in it – likely a hidden effect of Max Skill Affinity. I currently had three summons active; a protective air spirit, which was a Rare level 45 Air Magic spell that cost 140 mana, was quite weak, but had a duration of 30 minutes, which was much longer than most summons. Apart from it I also had the Vineling and a Small Life Spirit, both Novice spells of Earth and Life respectively. I had many more summoning spells I could technically cast, but I didn’t have the necessary mana, despite the enchanted rings grandfather had gotten me. I was wearing two Rare rings that each increased maximum mana by 50, and one ring that increased mana regeneration by 25 mana per hour. The rings were very expensive because they had been made by a Tier 2 Enchanter, who was capable of making items that could boost someone up to 50% of his natural values – normal enchanted items could only boost you up to 25% of your natural, un-boosted values, meaning I would only have been able to get around 40 mana, instead of the 76 I was getting from them now. This was very helpful for me, since higher level spells cost more. I even had some earth and air spells that I couldn’t cast at all, since they cost more than My maximum mana even with the rings.
Rainer focused his mind, and had all the summons do small, precise things. Move there, extend your vine here. It was quite tiring, definitely more difficult than simply having them attack someone, but it was still good training. When the Vineling and Life Spirit’s duration passed, he focused only on controlling the Air Spirit while his mana regenerated, while occasionally doing pushups and squats to keep his stamina at around half full.
“Name all of the Barons under Duke Bloyde, how many children they have, and their main source of income.” grandfather said.
“Baron Shehu, has three children, the oldest is an engaged 15 year old girl, second oldest and heir is a 12 year-old boy, not yet engaged. They have a small Lumber contract with surrounding baronies, famous soap makers, and ordinary farming as well. The daughter is engaged to the third son of Baron Abazi, one of their neighbors. Baron Abazi…”
My training wasn’t limited only to magic, and my grandfather was asking me questions throughout the ride. This technically didn’t train any skill, but it was important that I have a good grasp on the politics of our Dukedom. Thankfully, I shouldn’t be of too much interest during the celebration. Although I was the heir to one of seven Counts under Duke Bloyde, I was still young, and while my size and maturity may be noted it hopefully shouldn’t be too interesting compared to everything else that would likely be going on. I had also been practicing Acting less mature and more my age, which should also deflect attention from me.
We arrived in Argold city after the sun set, and after dinner in our city estate I headed outside to the garden.
“Jessica?” I called, knowing she would be close by.
“Yes, Rainer?” she said as she materialized from the shadows beside me. I smiled as I turned to look at her. Jessica was a middle-aged woman with a nondescript, almost average look, which was very useful for her considering she was a Specialized Spymaster. She was the second Retainer who had been permanently assigned to protect and mentor me and was also my teacher for stealth.
“I’m assuming I’m allowed to go outside as long as you accompany me?”
“You are” Jessica told me.
“Then let’s go. I am eager to learn now that we are finally in a city.”
Finally, I would be able to train in a city. Not only was it a much better training place for most social skills, I had also frankly gotten bored of the people and the surroundings of our estate. New scenery would be great.
I followed Jessica through the streets, as she instructed me on Stealth. We had previously practiced mainly in the woods surrounding our estate, and now in the city everything was different. After half an hour of sneaking, Jesseica led me to a back alley of a small building and taught me how to pick a lock. After a couple of minutes, I managed to unlock the backdoor and got the skill.
Congratulations!
You have learned the skill Lock Picking(Tier 1)!
Lock Picking is now Level 1!
+1% to successful picking of a lock.
You have become a Novice.
Inside, I saw we had entered a tailor’s shop. Jessica walked me through the shop, showing me different clothes, and asking me what I thought about them. What would this make me look like? What if I wanted to look like a merchant’s son? Or an apprentice baker? It wasn’t a fancy shop, and mainly sold clothes to poor people who worked every day. After an hour of dressing in different ways and practicing Acting the way I dressed, we left. We took with us a simple, well used outfit, that would make us seem like a hard-working mother and her young child. Something simple, but well made, so we wouldn’t look too poor. I learned the disguise skill from all our practice.
Congratulations!
You have learned the skill Disguise(Tier 1)!
Disguise is now Level 1!
+1% to authenticity of disguise.
You have become a Novice.
Then, we walked through the streets until we reached a marketplace. It still wasn’t too late at night, and the place was bustling and full of people. Here Jessica had me work more on my Acting. Sometimes I was a spoiled boy asking to buy from a sweets stall, or excitedly looking at skulls and horns in a hunter’s stall. At other times we were poorer, and I helped my “mother” find the best wares at the cheapest prices. I even practiced my Bartering and Trade for a bit.
Then, Jessica started taking me aside and asking questions every couple of minutes. What was the stall owner wearing? Were his hands calloused? Did he work much? Who was watching us as we walked? Was someone tailing us? How many people were secretly following the noble that had passed us 15 minutes ago? At first, noticing all of these things was very difficult for me, but eventually I got better. My Inspect Skill also helped me a lot, as anyone I suspected of being more than they acted, I could simply Inspect. It was high leveled enough now that I could see all of the attributes and skills of those I inspected, as long as they weren’t too high leveled.
The average level of adults in the city seemed to be around 7 or 8. It seemed quite low to me at the beginning, but these were people who had never fought and killed monsters or people, and had never pushed any Skill very high. Most of them weren’t even a Journeyman of any Skill. Interspersed here and there were higher leveled people. Guards who were walking the streets, former soldiers who had become craftsmen, skilled craftsmen who were sponsored by nobles. Jessica taught me how to recognize them even without Inspect, although it helped a lot that I could use it to make sure. How they dressed, their calloused hands, the way people with high physical attributes walked slightly differently, their confidence. This also made me realize that I myself was walking in a way that made it clear to a skilled observer that I was skilled in melee combat. As we walked, I slowly started correcting this, with Jessica giving me pointers once in a while.
The whole practice of noticing these small details made me learn a new skill, which I was sure would be the jewel of tonight.
Congratulations!
You have learned the skill Perceive(Tier 3)
Perceive is now Level 1!
+1% to Perception.
+1% chance to notice hidden details
You have become a Novice.
A Tier 3 skill! I was giddy, as it had been a long time since I last learned a new skill.
After a while Jessica also taught me how to Pickpocket. A lot of it was about choosing the right target with patience, and then creating some kind of distraction helped a lot when actually picking their pocket or bag. We didn’t take much as we practiced, since we didn’t really need the money. Jessica also told me that we would be infringing on a local gang’s territory. Although for now we remained unknown to them, if people started missing money which the local gang knew they didn’t steal they would start looking for whomever had infringed on their territory. Of course, Jessica wasn’t actually scared of such a gang, but it was better not to poke a hornet’s nest when possible, and also to build good habits for me. She actually told me this specific gang was, indirectly, controlled by my grandfather. I was surprised at first, but it made sense that in our own city, grandfather secretly had his hand in many places.
After that, we bought some meat on sticks for a late-night snack and climbed onto a roof to eat them while viewing the bustling market street.
“So, what skills did you learn tonight?”
“I learned Lockpicking, Disguise, Perceive, and Pickpocket.”
“Huh. I expected you to learn Lockpicking, disguise and Pickpocket, but I didn’t think you’d learn Perceive, definitely not this quickly. It’s my highest Tier Skill, and although I only had enough affinity in it to barely become an apprentice, it is what allowed me to truly shine as a Spymaster.” It still boggled my mind sometimes that people in this world had their advancement simply stuck. For basically everyone but me, affinity to a skill wasn’t constant. Instead, as they raised their skill’s level, their affinity dropped, and when it was lower than 50% they could no longer raise the skills level, no matter how much they practiced. Although Jessica and Liam didn’t know what my Abilities were, since I had kept them secret like my father and grandfather told me to, I was sure they partly suspected. I just had too many Skills that rose too fast to be normal. But they were both sworn retainers of our house, and I wasn’t afraid they may betray us.
“Come, enough daydreaming. It’s already past midnight, there is one last place I want to take you before we go back.”
I followed Jessica through the streets again, until we reached a small estate. It was two stories tall, with a small garden around it, and surrounded by a large iron fence.
“Who’s is this?” I asked.
“Knight Cylis”. I nodded my head, recalling the information I had been taught about him. Knights were the lowest rank of nobles in the kingdom. Unlike barons, the rank above them, knights didn’t have any lands under their control, and therefore also no income from taxes. Also, all barons in the kingdom were given their rank by decree of the king, while Counts and Duke’s where capable of knighting a Knight, as long as they paid a tithe to kingdom and sent the relevant papers. This meant that most knights were more like wealthy and powerful commoners in practice. They had to work just like commoners, although they usually had much better training, and therefore higher skills and levels as well. Most basic officer positions in the army were taken by Knights, and while not in war, they had various jobs around the city. Tutors for wealthy commoners and other noble’s children, officers in the city guard… although it wasn’t common, some of them were even craftsmen.
Knight Cylis was someone who had been knighted by my grandfather 20 years ago and was a trader and administrator in the Argold Trading Firm. He was reasonably wealthy for a Knight. We spent some time with Jessica teaching me how to scout a place. There was one guard at the gate, and one that was patrolling the grounds. I spent time learning his routine, and then we talked a bit about how to sneak into such a place. Where to cross the fence, where on the grounds can I hide, what other, hidden protections might be in place. Jessica told me that it was common among the wealthier nobles to keep someone hidden on the roof at night. After an hour of watching, we went back to our estate, and I quickly fell asleep in my bed.